Star Wars After Earth
by EmeraldChick
Summary: At the beginning of the Clone Wars, scouts go on a mission and find an unknown planet. Eager to claim the planet, Chancellor Palpatine sends Padme Amidala to convince the locals to join the Republic. But she finds a wild planet, filled with monsters and war and requests back up from Jedi Kenobi and Skywalker. What will they find on this dangerous planet the republic calls Earth?
1. Chapter 1

The senate was buzzing with excitement. We almost had Count Dooku captured and the war would have been over, but the Jedi were captured as well, and narrowly escaped with their lives with the help of Jar Jar Binks, and Count Dooku escaped.

"How he and Anakin did not kill each other is beyond me," thought Padme Amidala to herself as she took in the scene.

Mas Amadda brought everyone to order, and Chancellor Palpatine rose from his seat.

"The escape of Count Dooku is a distressing event, but we must prevail."

Boos came from the chorus of senators, but the Chancellor held his hand up and silenced them. "We can not hold the Jedi responsible for anything the Senate itself cannot do on its own power. If the Senate would have been able to hold itself together, then we would not need a young Jedi Knight to come to our rescue. I know Anakin Skywalker personally, if he could not capture Dooku at the moment, it could not be done."

Padme positioned her platform to hover near the Chancellor. "I must say, I agree with you your highness, no one man can lose or win a war. We must remember it was not the Jedi who started this war, but our political agendas. Remember, Dooku is a coward who has done nothing but run and hide and he is running out of places to do that. The Jedi will hunt him down, for they are far more cunning than him. We must have faith in our democracy, and in our protectors of it the Jedi. I stand with General Skywalker, who stands with me?"

A chorus of cheers went up that bounced off the Senate walls and overwhelmed me. No one has lost faith in my husband, they were just scared of Dooku and his tactics. They just needed a little encouragement that is all.

I was maneuvering my platform back to the docking bay to get out of the way of people who needed to talk, when I heard a ping from the dashboard, meaning that I had a message from someone in the Senate. I looked down and saw it was from Chancellor Palpatine himself. I opened it.

"Padme:

That was a wonderful speech, my lady. Your friendship and admiration for Anakin shines through when you talk about him. I like that, and I think he would appreciate it. I have a proposition for you. I was wondering if you could meet me in my chambers, say, 1500 hours. I'll be expecting you.

Sheev"

"Of course," I said back.

When I arrived to Chancellor Palpatine's chambers I was a bit confused and very concerned about what Sheev wanted to talk to me about. He had commented on my dedication to Anakin. Maybe, I had overplayed the thankfulness to a man who had saved my life several times and people were beginning to suspect something.

"My admiration for Anakin?" I thought, walking to the Chancellor's office. "Does he suspect something? Did I just destroy us? What should I do? Stay calm. Don't become defensive. Obi-Wan has told Anakin that we have feelings for each other, my sister saw that we cared for each other when she met Ani. No. If I say I don't care, they know that's a lie. If I make a brother/sister thing or like a best friend, they will believe that."

When I arrived, Dar Wac, Palpatine's aide greeted me.

"Hello Senator Amidala," said Dar Wac, "His Excellency is expecting you. Go right in."

"Thank you, Dar."

I walked into the office to see Palpatine hunched over at his desk looking at some hologram of an unknown planet I have never seen before. It was a beautiful planet, filled with water, volcanoes, deserts, and grasslands. It looked like Kamino, Tatooine, Naboo, and Mustafar combined. I had never seen anything more thrilling or more dangerous.

I cleared my throat to indicate my presence, and Palpatine turned around to see me.

"Ah, Padme, come in, come," and he turned around and shut off the hologram.

"I didn't mean to spy. You looked deep in thought," I said.

"You are quite alright, my dear. And I was deep in thought. I will need your help if I am going to make any headway, but we can discuss that later. First, I want to finish our discussion about Anakin."

"Oh, I can explain my actions with your grace. You see I have known Anakin since he was a young child, and I felt he was receiving unfair treatment, and since he was not there to defend himself against the senate, I felt obligated."

"You do not feel obligated towards the other Jedi," said Palpatine.

"The other Jedi would not take a bullet for me. Anakin would," I said.

"Out of devotion?" he asked, eyes up.

That was a dangerous question. "Out of friendship," I clarified. "I do not have many friends. Colleagues, Political partners, but not friends. Neither does Anakin. We are kind of there for one another."

"He is a special and talented young man. You have no doubt figured that out for yourself. Although at times, I suspect that he is under-appreciated by the Jedi. He is in some ways far superior to them. If only he could amend the Jedi rules and could still play their games."

Was he talking about our marriage? Surely he wasn't, how could he? Anakin would not tell him what happened between us, would he?

"We could keep it a secret." Anakin's proposal rang so strongly in my ears. No Ani would not breathe a word, even to Palpatine, he must be getting at something else entirely.

"What do you mean?" I asked, innocently.

"Well, his mother, for example, he feels as if he cannot have an obligation to her, which is ludicrous," answered Palpatine.

I nodded. "I'm not sure if you know this, but I was with Anakin when his mother died. He had a whole spectrum of emotions, anger, guilt, grief, despair, but one of them was shame for feeling that way. I tried to explain to him that it was okay and normal to feel those feelings, but I doubt he would listen to me."

"The Jedi value the feeling of serenity at all times and that is why they do not have attachments. I have tried to tell Anakin that he is different and needs to evaluate himself, according to the circumstances, however Anakin disregards me because I am not a Jedi."

"There is nothing wrong with loving your mother, even the Jedi would say that," I said.

"Oh, never put anything past them, my lady. Aren't they the ones who outlawed love itself?"

"Anakin said that 'compassion or unconditional love is essential to a Jedi's life'."

"Ah, he is a clever one. Yes it is. But only at a certain point of view. What Master Yoda might find compassionate, you and I might find heartless."

I bit my lip thinking about such topics. Is it possible that Ani should leave the Jedi Order and we could just be happy together on Naboo?

"Now, perhaps we should stop discussing the ideals of a religion neither of us practice, and discuss politics?" said Palpatine, smiling.

"Ah, yes. You wanted to discuss something," I said.

He led me to his desk and turned on the monitor to reveal a hologram display of a strange planet. I realized it was the same strange planet that he was looking at and turned off when I entered the room.

"Our probes have found this when we were searching for Separatist spies," said Palpatine.

"A new planet?" I asked.

"We are calling it Terra until we can think of a more suitable name."

"Terra," I said, filling the name in my mouth. "Are the locals friendly?"

"There have been no locals based on what we have discovered with our probes."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Advise me. We are running a war. You are one of my most trusted allies and a good friend. What do I do? This has never happened before in my lifetime. Truthfully, we are unsure of these peoples levels of education and language. What do you do in this day and era if you find a planet?"

"Someone has to go speak for the Republic and explain to them our values and our democracy. These people could aid us and we could aid them."

"I agree, but who would go to an unknown region face unknown dangers in the name of democracy?"

"I'll do it."

"No Padme. It is too dangerous."

"I didn't say I would do it alone. I will have my security team."

"You will also bring another senator, and Jedi Knight and his company."

Another senator huh? And a Jedi? Well, obviously Anakin. And Obi-Wan and Ahsoka as a package deal. We will never be alone, unless the Senator is... "How about two Jedi Knights, a well adapted Padawan learner, a Senator, and two clone battalions?"

"That will be acceptable. Which battalions do you have in mind?"

"The 501st and 212th."

"Obi-Wan and Anakin?"

"They protected me when I was in danger before," I said.

"And they will do a superb job now. And your choice of Senator?"

"Satine Kryze."

"Interesting Choice."

"She is extremely diplomatic, as a pacifist, she will be able to de-escalate situations. Also, she is familiar with Anakin and Obi-Wan. They are all friends, and can work together as a team." And she will distract Obi-Wan from Anakin and I.

"I had no idea she and the Jedi were friends," he said. "An excellent choice. Sounds like you will have a good strike team. I will prepare the order for the Council, and have the Jedi report to you in the morning."


	2. Chapter 2

We were on the bridge of our republic cruiser. Admiral Leeorch was standing at the bridge gazing down on the impressive planet of Terra. I came up beside him, and looked with it.

"It is an impressive planet," I said.

"This might be a fool's errand, my lady. This planet may be uninhabited, or the locals may be savages," he said.

"Or they could be the salvation needed to save the Republic from the Separtist."

"There is always hope ma'am?"

I smiled. How many people thought nothing good came from Tatooine, and that is where I found the love of my life? "Always," I said.

Admiral Leeorch walked me from the bridge to the hanger, where I heard a lot of yelling. When we turned the corner, there was a man, a clone, standing on some boxes, barking orders to all of the other men standing around him.

"Listen up dogs," yelled a clone in the hanger. "We are going to an unknown planet where anything can happen. So look alive. Our primary objective is to bring the Senator home in one piece. Ya copy, mutts?"

"Yes, sir," came the chorus of men.

"Dismissed," barked the commanding clone, and the men when back to what they were doing.

The man hopped off the crates, and turned to see Admiral Leeroch and me walking towards him.

"Admiral," he said, saluting.

"At ease, Commander Cast," said Leeorch. "This is Senator Padme Amidala. She was assigned by the senate to inspect Terra and learn of its inhabitants. Your company is to escort her, and keep her safe."

"Yes, sir," said Cast.

"I have been in tough spots before Commander, and I can handle a blaster," I said. "I won't be much of a liability. The problem is I do not know how long we will need to explore the planet."

Cast looked at me shocked. "My lady, you do not need to worry about safety, that is my job. I was bred for combat, and this may become a combat zone. Explore what you need, and I will have your back."

We take the gunships to Terra at 0600 Corrausaunt time. I am in the gunship with Cast and we are arguing about my safety.

"Commander, I would feel safer with a blaster at my side. That way I am not a liability but an asset to the mission," I said.

"Senator, with all due respect it is my job to keep you safe. You do not need to worry about being a liability. You will be protected at all times."

"Have you not read my profile?" I asked indignantly. "I helped my captain of the guard Captain Panaka to infiltrate and arrest the Trade Federation leader, Nute Gunrey. Then during the battle of Geonosis, I fought alongside Anakin Skywalker, himself. I know how to fight."

"With all due respect, ma'am, I am in charge of keeping you safe, and I do not believe you will be safer with a weapon."

I huffed and said nothing. Anakin would give me a gun, I thought.

We landed in a clearing about two clicks south of where we got off the cruiser. As soon as we touch down, Cast started barking orders, "Alright men, move it. We don't have time for loligagging. Come on. Put your back into it."

Padme stepped out onto a lush green planet that looked a little bit like Felucia. It had lush greens and bright sunlight that made her strain her eyes. The vegetation looked pretty. Big bright green colors.

Padme watched the clones set up knowing that if Cast was not going to give her a gun, then he certainly was not going to let her participate in mans work of setting up camp. While she was waiting for all of the construction to be done, she sent a message to Anakin.

"Arrived safe. Missing you. All my love."

She sent it quickly and looked around the camp, no one was paying any attention to her.

After a while, a clone came and found her. "Your quarters are ready, miss," he said, and he lead her to a small tent with a cot, a dresser, and a basin and mirror. "It is not much ma'am, but it is private and there is netting so the bugs can't get to ya."

"This is fine Commander," I said.

"Dinner will be served in 20 minutes," he said, then clicked his heels together and strolled out of the tent.

Dinner was okay. I could not eat like that everyday. I am surprised Anakin did not complain about the food more often. I ate about half, telling Cast that this strange planet has thrown my appetite off.

"That's not good ma'am, You need to keep your appetite up during the mission."

"Oh I am sure it will return,'' I said. "I am just nervous and excited. I think I will turn in now. Good night."

I go to my tent and pick up my datapad, and there is a message from Anakin. It reads:

"Padme.

I miss you so much my bones hurt. I have to see you and I hate that I am stuck out here on the Outer Rim. Ahsoka is blossoming into such a young woman and everyone is noticing, including Rex, my first in command. Obi-Wan is by the book and seems even more grumpy than usual. How is Coruscant? I should be up for leave soon.

Anakin."

I write him back.

"Anakin,

I miss you too. When this war is over, we can go to Naboo and drink deeply of each other. I am not on Coruscant at the moment. I am on a mission for palpatine, surveying a new planet called Terra. I am glad Ahsoka is doing well. It is sweet that she and Rex can be friends, I am glad that Obi-Wan is wekk,

All my love,

Padme"

I went to sleep dreaming of my husband, but a hellish shriek woke me up.


	3. Chapter 3

I was groggy, but that scream woke me up as I was trying to identify what it was and where it was coming from. I grabbed my blaster, and ran out of my tent turning on the light on my blaster so that I could see. Looking around I saw nothing but the tents of the men and the forest that surrounded us.

"Fan out men!" yelled Cash. "Patrol the area!"

A trooper ran by me with his night vision on, and a gun in his hands.

"Trooper, what is it?"

"No idea, ma'am. Some animals seem to be attacking the base. If we can't corral them, we will have no choice but to shoot them."

"Where are they attacking from?"

"The North. We are trying to scare them away now. Stay here," he ordered and he took off towards the North side of the camp trying to scare the animals with the gunfire.

I started walking back to my tent, but kept my pistol out just in case. I open the flap to my tent and see a large animal in my tent digging into my rations. He turns to me and roars, his open mouth exposing his large teeth.

I scramble backwards and start firing at his snout, but the bullets bounce off ineffective. Looking around I tried to scream for Cash, to see if he could come help me, but a quick glance in his direction showed that he was busy with a monster of his own. Looks like I was doing this by myself.

I took off running away from the camp in search for higher ground so that I could have some edge on the monster. The monster followed me, quite fast.

When I reached the swamp area, I hid behind a tree, hoping it would go forward, and I could shoot it from behind. As I suspected it wandered into the swamp blindly and I started shooting at its back, hoping I could do some damage. But the bullets reflected off of its scales, and the monster turned around and roared at me. It started to come at me, and I bolted out of the way and ran back to the base, turning around a couple of times to fire at the scaly beast.

Back at the camp, I see the monster's corner Cash, and he was swinging his blaster like a club, because the bullets were ineffective. I had to help him, so I aimed and fired a couple of shots, then ducked behind one of our landing ships. I did not need to turn around because I heard all three monsters roar as they were chasing me. I started shooting the other monsters as they were attacking the men. When I shot enough times, they left their targets and started chasing me.

"My lady, What are you doing?" asked Cash., into my comms.

"Get the men to the ship," I said. "Abandon mission."

"They will kill you!"

May Anakin forgive me, I prayed.

I came to a cliff's edge, and there was nowhere to run. I turned around and stood my ground against the monsters. I saw the glee in their eyes as they had cornered their prey and supper was coming. It reminded me of my execution on Geonosis against the Nexu. Except for then, I had Anakin. Here I was going to die alone. I touched my necklace underneath my shirt. Ani I love you. I pulled the trigger.

As expected, the bullets did nothing, but made them angry. I swallowed hard as they roared and crept closer.

A loud shriek filled the air. It was not from me, or the clones, or the monsters. I looked around, and saw a group of young kids, coming with guns, much bigger than Cash's. They were firing at the monsters.

The monsters turned and charged at the children, and I screamed, "Run!"

But the kids stood their ground, and open-fired at the monsters. I stood there, holding my breath, as the monster took the bullets like they did with our guns, but the children did not move. Then slowly, one-by-one the monsters fell to the ground, dead.

I let out a breath, and walked over to the children, who were actually not children but were a little older than Ahsoka. They were cheering wildly, grinning from ear to ear, some of the younger ones were jumping up and down.

"Thank you for saving my life," I said, hoping they would speak basic.

"Your welcome," said a tall boy, with spiky, red hair. "Why are you here?"

"We thought this planet was uninhabited. Our government sent us here to explore it."

"Well, it's not uninhabitable. So you can go tell your _government _that we are fine!" said a tall girl with blond hair and brown eyes.

Her blatant rage took me back. Were we trespassing? Maybe, so. They did just save our necks. Maybe they try to live in peace with the monsters and we just had them unnecessarily killed. "I'm sorry if we offended you," I said. "But we did not even know people were on this planet. We are from a planet called Coruscant, and I personally did not even did not know about Terra until two rotations ago."

"It's called Earth, and I have never heard of Coruscant."

"It's the capital of the known systems."

"Well, I guess we are not a known system are we?" he sighed. "Well, you're here anyway. Trespassing or not. I am Owen, that is Rey, my second in command, and Butler."

Rey was a tall blond, who was scanning the area like a hawk, and Butler was a short black haired boy talking to Cash demonstrating how to use the weapon.

"It's nice to meet you," I said.

"You're not safe here," said Owen. "Would you like to come back to our camp? We have weapons that are better equipped for the raptors."

I nodded. "Yes, show me your camp."


	4. Chapter 4

"Here we are," said Owen, and we came across several trees all clustered together. I could not make out what we were supposed to be looking at, but soon Owen slung his gun around his back and let out a long whistle.

A head popped out from behind a bush, and the young boy reminded me of Anakin when I first found him in Watto's junk shop, just with darker skin.

"There back!" cried the boy, "and they brought prisoners!"

Owen laughed. "Joey, these aren't prisoners, these are our friends."

Joey ran up to us. He was wearing tan leggings and no shirt and I could not believe that he was not cold. He looked at us with big eyes, and blinked as he tried to process that we could come and go in our own free will.

"Friends," he said. Testing the word in his mouth. "Okay."

"Joey, go put a shirt on," said Rey.

Joey nodded, and ran off in the woods.

Owen shook his head and walked deeper into the woods. When I followed him, I saw that there was an old white building that looked run down and dilapidated. It was a two story building, white, bits of green in the shutters, columns down the porch, iron handrails, and a black front door.

"Kind of looks like Gone with the Wind," says Rey.

"I don't know what that is," I admitted. "But it must have been gorgeous back when it was built. It is unlike any building I have ever seen."

"Really? It's my parents. They were both in Real Estate before… Anyway, the house is my inheritance. It's out base. Your people are welcome to crash here. It can sleep about 15 people, and that is before we double up."

"I am here with a squad of soldiers which is twelve men. They can set up camp outside that way you can enjoy your hideout normally."

"It's two stories," said Butler. "We can all sleep upstairs, and you can have a room upstairs to yourself and then the men can sleep downstairs."

"Yeah, you have seen the monsters attack your camp before. It's too dangerous to sleep outside," said Rey, dismounting her steed.

"You're very generous."

They walked me into the house and it had two hallways going off to the sides before a big wooden staircase going up to the second floor.

"I show you around," said Rey, and led me to the right. There was a big room with a square table and about ten chairs all around it. "It won't feed everyone, so we will have to eat in shifts." I nodded.

Then she went through the door into the gigantic sitting room. There was plenty of places for Owen, Rey, Butler, Cash, and I to sit and discuss strategy. There was several things dispersed throughout the room.

"Does that Holopad work?" I asked.

"Um, we call it a TV, and yeah it works.," said Owen.

"TV" That is a funny name for it. Alright. "What does the TV show?" I asked.

"Nothing but the news. But it can show old movies DVDs, VCR, and we got it hooked up to blu-ray."

All of those things had funny names, but I guess they were all Terra names.

"What does the News show?" I asked curious.

"How the dinosaurs were formed, What to do if you are attacked, stuff like that," said Owen.

"I would like to watch it tonight, just to get the latest information. And then we don't have to watch it anymore," I said.

"I don't want the little ones watching it. We can watch it tonight around 6:30 after I put them to bed," said Rey.

"Has your planet always been like this?" I asked.

"No," said Owen. "Five years ago, a scientist, Dr. Fritz Dean said he could bring dinosaurs back into human kind and he could make them to be docile. He said in ten years people could have a pet pterodactyl or a pet triceratops. Anyway, instead of experimenting one at a time, the idiot tried with as any ass possible, except he got the formula wrong. They weren't docile. They killed him, and broke out of his lab in San Francisco. Since then they have repopulated and taken over the whole continent, and possibly the rest of the world."

"And now there is chaos everywhere."

"Yep."

"I don't understand. Isn't there a Senate or some kind of governing body that this man would have to submit to before conducting such an experiment."

"We had a UN which is called a United Nations, it is the governing body of every political country on the planet that wants peace. And yes, they said that as long as he could submit evidence where the monsters would not harm society it would be fine."

"And the experiment did not work?"

"He lied in his report."

"So he knew it was going to hurt people and he did it anyway?"

"I don't think he knew this would happen, but he knew the animals would be more aggressive then he let on."

"How many animals got out?"

"In the eighties. But they have multiplied and mated in the last five years. There are thousands of them now."

I sighed and out my head in my hands. How am I supposed to do this? My comlink beeped. I was getting a hologram message.

"Excuse me Owen," I said, and walked out of the room into an empty bedroom. I answered the message.

"Padme," said Chancellor Palpatine, "It has been twenty-four hours since you have landed on Terra. I want a report on your progress."

Start with the good. "I have made contact with the locals, and am at their base of operations right now, Chancellor, planning strategy."

"Strategy for what?"

"There was an experiment on this planet five years ago, and monsters were created that have taken over the planet."

"You must get off that planet at once!"

"If I may sir, I think there is another solution," I said an idea forming in my mind.

"What is that?"

"When I was on Naboo with Anakin Skywalker, he demonstrated a rudimentary skill for developing a bond with an animal. I think a Jedi might help."

"Anakin can bond with animals?"

"On a basic level."

"That's fascinating," he whispered. "I will send him to you," he said, and turned off comms.

I leaned back and sighed. "Ani is coming," I thought.


End file.
